Sumathy Karuppannan Applewhite

Sumathy Karuppannan Applewhite, LMSW (she, her, hers) is an alumnus of CSSW (Class of 2008). She will be teaching Decolonizing Social Work: Power, Race, Oppression and Privilege. Foundations: Direct Practice with Individuals and Groups and Advocacy in Social Work Practice. While she has been away from the School she has been working primarily with BIPOC adolescents in the school setting as a School Social Worker in the Bedford- Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Crown Heights and East New York areas of Brooklyn, NY. She has also worked in the same position on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, NY. She has piloted restorative justice programs in these roles to ensure social emotional growth and increased capacity for empathy to ensure trauma healing in these communities. She provided forensic mental health services and discharge planning for Mentally Ill and/ or Chemically Addicted inmates at Riker’s Island to ensure they had services in place and continuation of care once released back into the community. She currently works as a consultant for BIPOC therapy spaces as an LGBTQIA+ community specialist through individual and couples therapy work with this community.